- Global Card Fraud to Hit $31.26bn by 2018
Globally, card fraud is expected to hit a peak of $31.26bn by 2018, according to Interswitch.
The firm has estimated that globally, nearly one in three consumers is victimised by card fraud, with almost one in five consumers experiencing fraud multiple times in the past five years.
According to Interswitch, the fraud events erode consumer trust in their banks and generate losses for multiple parties including banks and merchants.
The world has been experiencing rising cases of card fraud, which Interswitch said reached $21.84bn in 2015.
While a general upsurge in financial services-related fraud had been reported, the firm said it was quite encouraging to note that empirical data revealed that losses to fraud within the Nigerian banking system had reduced within the last few years.
It linked this progress to various technologies and regulatory initiatives in the Nigerian banking system, which appeared to be improving in terms of fraud rate.
This is further supported by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Banking and Payment Systems Department reporting that actual losses, as a result of fraud in bank transactions, dropped from N6.2bn in 2014 to about N2.3bn in 2015.
In a bid to further consolidate the positive trend and promote lasting solutions to mitigate financial fraud in Nigeria, Interswitch partnered Tranwall, a leading international transaction security and control firm, and WEMA Bank to launch Wema Card Control in December 2015 – a pioneering feature in the Nigerian market that allows cardholders to take control of their card security in a way that is customisable and easy to use.
In a statement on Friday, the Divisional Chief Executive Officer, Interswitch Industry Vertical Markets, Mrs. Chinyere Don-Okhuofu, was quoted to have said, “At Interswitch, we fully understand the need for better security measures especially regarding card fraud. Tranwall’s technology is a perfect fit for our market, providing complete card base coverage, and support for both legacy feature phones and smartphones.
The Head, e-Business, Wema Bank, Dele Adeyinka, said, “In launching the Card Control, we wanted to deliver innovation that is secure, easy to use and will improve the customer experience.
